Making Art Quotes

I'm making art and making decisions and editing things. I don't live my life to broadcast it into the art world; I don't see it as my life on the stage. ~ Frances Stark

I'm not intelligent enough to be a doctor, and kind of hands down you can't argue with the worth of that. But I don't really have an opinion about the worth of making art. ~ Rupert Friend

I have no doubt that your acceptance of Christ coincided with some very positive changes in your life. Perhaps you now love other people in a way that you never imagined possible. You may even experience feelings of bliss while praying. I do not wish to denigrate any of these experiences. I would point out, however, that billions of other human beings, in every time and place, have had similar experiences--but they had them while thinking about Krishna, or Allah, or the Buddha, while making art or music, or while contemplating the beauty of nature. ~ Sam Harris

We talk about the vulnerability involved in sharing our work publicly. I don't think we talk enough about the real vulnerability involved in making art; if we truly engage the process we are changed by it. ~ John Paul Caponigro

Making art is different for everyone. ~ China Chow

Forgiveness. The ability to forgive oneself. Stop here for a few breaths and think about this because it is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life. Every time I have set out to translate the book (or story, or hopelessly long essay) that exists in such brilliant detail on the big screen of my limbic system onto a piece of paper (which, let's face it, was once a towering tree crowned with leaves and a home to birds). I grieve for my own lack of talent and intelligence. Every. Single. Time. Were I smarter, more gifted, I could pin down a closer facsimile of the wonders I see. I believe, more than anything, that this grief of constantly having to face down our own inadequacies is what keeps people from being writers. Forgiveness, therefore, is key. I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. Again and again throughout the course of my life I will forgive myself. ~ Ann Patchett

That is why my first and most pressing question seems like such an outright act of mutiny. What I want to know is, since when does making art require participation in any community, beyond the intense participation that the art itself is undertaking? Since when am I not contributing to the community if all I want to do is make the art itself? Isn't the art itself my intimate communication with others, with the world, with the unfolding spectacle of the human struggle as we live and coexist on this earth? ~ Meghan Tifft

I do not think making art alone makes it any better than making it with a team of people. ~ Olafur Eliasson

There are always going to be people that are judgmental that are going to say, 'Well, he was an actor first, so he doesn't have the right to be a musician,' or, 'I know him as this, so therefore I will never accept him as that.' I can't change those people. I can only be myself. And I can only keep making art. I can only do the best that I can. I am not going to spend my life trying to silence the critics. I'm going to do what I'm passionate about and follow my dreams. ~ Jared Leto

The nature of making music and making art, what motivates me is that it's interesting. It's interesting to listen, to really listen to other people's point-of-view. Take in their work. Listen to the way they sing. Listen to the way they write lyrics. What they are trying to express. ~ Emily Haines

The duty of the artist is not to be calculating in any sense, so that he may be free himself of human emotions while carried by the universal forces of life. Only then does one not think about making art, or about styles, or directions. Something comes about, something happens. ~ Karel Appel

I am not a commercial industry creator. I don't believe in making art to make money. ~ Alejandro Jodorowsky

Art is often confused with the skill of drawing. It is the skill of making. ~ Stephen Metcalf

Making art has first of all to do with honesty. My first lesson was to see objectively, to erase all meaning of the thing seen. Then only could the real meaning of it be understood and felt. ~ Ellsworth Kelly

I'm not making art, I'm making sushi. ~ Masaharu Morimoto

Making art is like swimming underwater in a blindfold. ~ Walter Darby Bannard

I don't make much of a living, but I do live much of a making. ~ Laurence Overmire

If art's a seismographic project, when that project meets with failure, failure must become the subject too. ~ Chris Kraus

If you're making art, you are not separate from your brand. ~ Danielle LaPorte

The tricky thing about being a writer, or about being any kind of artist, is that in addition to making art you also have to make a living. ~ Ann Patchett

I don't think of myself as making art. I do what I do because I want to, because painting is the best way I've found to get along with myself. ~ Robert Rauschenberg

Making art has taught me that the tiniest smidgen of progress is something to be cherished. ~ Julia Cameron

It was never my goal to capitalize on punk. I could never make it as a commercial artist. I didn't back then and I still don't have the temperament and don't care for drawing or painting or making art for any other purposes other my own. ~ Raymond Pettibon

The silver lining of those years when I was trying to get 'Tinkers' published but couldn't were the years when I had to decide, Why do I want to be a writer? I realized that writing is the thing itself; writing is not a means to publication, writing is not a predicate of publication, so I spent years making art for art's sake. ~ Paul Harding

Living through art is a better way to live - not necessarily making art, but being surrounded by art. I think it's just as banal as trying to show my version of the beauty in the world. It's about beauty at the end of the day. ~ Ragnar Kjartansson

It is not the act of making art that is painful. It is the desire to make something and not acting on it that causes pain ... A day when I don't write is less happy. This is not discipline. It is affection, enthusiasm, adventure-any number of other words besides discipline. ~ Julia Cameron

There are times when I prefer a cerebral moment with an artist, and I'll just enjoy the wit of a Picabia or a Duchamp. It amuses me that they thought that what they did would be a good way of making art. ~ David Bowie

I like that feeling when you're making art, that you're taking the energy out of your body and putting it into a physical object. I like things that are labor-intensive : you make a little thing and another little thing and another little thing, and eventually you see a possibility. ~ Kiki Smith

Gloria was still talking, something about how shooting people was in a sense safer than making art, in terms of avoiding serious lapses in taste. ~ Rachel Kushner

You don't make art after you become an artist. You become an artist by ceaselessly making art. ~ Seth Godin

I visited the Museum of Modern Art and viewed the exhibition of Picasso's sculptures, and I couldn't help but think about what it would be like to have a room full of school children explore Picasso's approach to making art. ~ Jerry Pinkney

What I'm good at is making art. ~ Jock Sturges

All this angst, all this stuff we all feel, is just tied to making art. It's so ancient. ~ Paul Beatty

If I set out to sculpt a standing man and it becomes a lying woman, I know I am making art. ~ Henry Moore

Making art, I try to just gently persist, instead of having freak-outs where I'm like, Oh, my god, I'll never draw again. You are going to draw again, so you might as well relax. ~ Gary Panter

I think that's my hope for a lot of the feminist movement is that the gender thing sort of stops being the selling point, if that makes any sense. We're just people making art, and that's how this process has felt to me. ~ Sara Bareilles

This is a message from your heart
Your most devoted body part
Taking blood and making art
This is a message from your heart
Pounding away into the dark
You could thank me for a start
This is a message from your heart ~ Kina Grannis

No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity. ~ Julia Cameron

I'm making entertainment, but I'm making art. This is my art. Hopefully, it's profitable, hopefully it makes money, but at the end of the day I want it to be remembered for its artistic value as well as its entertainment value. ~ Morgan Spurlock

I like Betsy Ross as a model, too, the quilting bee, sitting around with your friends making art, asking what they think, so that you get the benefit of everyone's opinions and so it's not just about you in your you-dom. ~ Kiki Smith

Making art, good art, is always a struggle. It can make you happy when you pull it off. There's no better feeling. It's beauteous. But it's always about hard work and inspiration and sweat and good ideas. ~ Damien Hirst

To me, success is making a positive difference through art - making art that affects the world and that changes the way people feel about themselves and the world. ~ Kat Graham

TV was entertainment of the last resort. There was nothing on during the day in the summer other than game shows and soap operas. Besides, a TV-watching child was considered available for chores: take out the trash, clean your room, pick up that mess, fold those towels, mow the lawn ... the list was endless. We all became adept at chore-avoidance. Staying out of sight was a reliable strategy. Drawing or painting was another: to my mother, making art trumped making beds. A third choir-avoidance technique was to read. A kid with his or her nose in a book is a kid who is not fighting, yelling, throwing, breaking things, bleeding, whining, or otherwise creating a Mom-size headache. Reading a book was almost like being invisible - a good thing for all concerned. ~ Pete Hautman

The idea of "making art for art's sake" makes no sense for me. Each area of my life, all the roles I play, influences the others. ~ Ben Sollee

Making art was really about the problem of the soul, of losing it. It was a technique for inhabiting the world. For not dissolving into it. ~ Rachel Kushner

The fact that biological, or 'natural' rules might help in the creation of a computer generated work of art is interesting, but even a wonderful work of art made in this fashion isn't the same as a person, with all his or her experiences and emotions involved, making art. ~ Steven Levy

I feel like I've gotten to the point where when I get tired of making art I can make a smooth transition into making music and vice versa. There is always something to do. ~ John Dyer Baizley

You should always be ready to apply these two rules of action, the first, to do nothing other than what the kingly and law-making art ordains for the benefits of humankind, and, the second, to be prepared to change your mind if someone is at hand to put you right and guide you away from some groundless opinion. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Since I started making art, I've always had some kind of project that was really about and for other people, because I think I just need that balance to feel sane myself - you know? ~ Miranda July

There are other noteworthy characteristics of this rock art style: Anthropomorphs without headdresses instead sport horns, or antennae, or a series of concentric circles. Also prominent in many of the figures' hands are scepters--each one an expression of something significant in the natural world. Some look like lightning bolts, some like snakes; other burst from the fingers like stalks of ricegrass. Colorado Plateau rock-art expert Polly Schaafsma has interpreted these figures as otherworldly--drawn by shamans in isolated and special locations, seemingly as part of a ceremonial retreat. Schaafsma and others believe that the style reflects a spirituality common to all hunter-gatherer societies across the globe--a way of life that appreciates the natural world and employs the use of visions to gain understanding and appreciation of the human relationship to the earth. Typically, Schaafsma says, it is a spirituality that identifies strongly with animals and other aspects of nature--and one that does so with an interdependent rather than dominant perspective. To underscore the importance of art in such a culture, Schaafsma points to Aboriginal Australians, noting how, in a so-called primitive society, where forms of written and oral communication are considered (at least by our standards) to be limited, making art is "one means of defining the mystic tenets of one's faith. ~ Amy Irvine

I was in the emergency room twice with heart palpitations and panic attacks. As one of my actor friends pointed out: your body doesn't know that you're making art. You think about struggle and challenge and you imagine yourself weighing 302 pounds and being restricted and in despair. Your body doesn't know that that's not the case. ~ Lori Lansens

Making art has never been a mystery to me. It's never been something that's very difficult. ~ Richard Prince

It's about what I know is true. Because I'm looking at this bright red storm of color on a canvas, at all my delicate lines and passionate brushstrokes. I'm looking at something so urgent and true, so far beyond what I thought I was capable of making. ~ Nina LaCour

Art allows us to remember things we have never done and go to places we have never been...Making art is one of the only ways we can tell ourselves who we once were and who we aspire to be. ~ Jomny Sun

Being an artist is a very long game. It is not a 10-year game. I hope I'll be around making art when I'm 80. ~ Anish Kapoor

Contemporary curators orbit in the place of distribution and consumption, and less and less in the space of artists. I think it has become a lazy profession in regard to its relationship to the artists and the vigorous state of art making. ~ Michelle Grabner

Don't think about making art ... ~ Andy Warhol

The act of making art is both scary and healing. Art brings light to places that have remained dark. Art brings perspective. Making art, at any level, is an act of courage and an expression of faith. ~ Julia Cameron

I like to think of the figures I make as companions for a personal journey. I try to fill each one with healing energy that responds to the person who owns it, and conversely, I hope that the person who owns it will respond with a true heart connection. I feel that my work is a sign post to the half forgotten world that we all carry inside of us. When people look at my work, I want them to think "Oh, now I remember." If they do that then I know that they have been successful. ~ Wendy Froud

Making art will show you how much you already have. Your real treasures. A brand-new Maserati is a lot less beautiful to draw than a rusty old pickup. ~ Danny Gregory

The greatest opportunities for creative transformation are often lodged in our discontents. Art is an alchemical process that feeds on emotional energy. When we realize that a perfect equilibrium in our lives might not be the best basis for making art, then we can begin to re-vision our stress points. So rather than try to rid your life of tension, consider doing something more creative with it. ~ Shaun McNiff

Having a collection, taking it out, looking at it, reordering it, and putting it away is creative in itself. It doesn't yield a product, like the results of an art, but is stops time, as making art does. ~ Molly Peacock

What if I start making art again? What if I just did that? That is the thing I love, that is the thing I miss the most. For so long I have believed I could never catch up, but now I realize there's nothing to catch up to, there's only what I choose to make. There's still time, I think. I have so much time left. ~ Jami Attenberg

We are doing it, me and you. We are doing it with heart. And with art. And with soul and blind faith and ancient knowing. Because we have to. Because there are people who need us to. Because WE need us to most of all.
No matter how discouraged you've been. No matter how the destructive old patterns have been returning, knocking loudly at your door. No matter the moments of utter freeze or massive resistance or sheer exhaustion. Go out today and make something. Something brave and defiant and determined and true. And then muster up your last bit of moxie and hold out your arms and offer it to the world.

Say "I made this. For me and for you".

Say " This is what keeps me from the rabbit hole".

Say "This is how I go on".

Say "I see you, too and I know how hard it is and I want you to have this to make it a little bit better"

I promise. It changes things.
For all of us. ~ Jeanette LeBlanc

Miley Cyrus is about making money. Amanda Palmer is about making art. ~ Eddi Reader

Making art is complicated because the categories are always changing. You just have to make your own art, and whatever categories it falls into will come later. ~ Frank Stella

I'm interested in art, and I think about the process of making art. It's part of my personality, my experience of the world, so it ends up in the movies. It's where my head is. ~ Charlie Kaufman

I was a pretty pretentious kid. I was always making art. ~ Nate Lowman

I dream of Morocco and Paris, and a koi pond in the backyard. Making art, supporting art, learning art. Late-night talks with soul sisters who make me feel crazy blessed and motivated. Stage presence. Books and more books. Film. Belly laughs. I dream about communion. My man. Our son. Always. I dream of sitting around a fire with leaders and lovers of progress. Being able to give yeses that open doors and new dimensions for people. I dream of tenderness and innovation. I dream of invitations that humble me, and magical connections with people I recognize on a cellular level. I dream that we band together to leverage change. I dream of feeling more electric and sweet every single day. Mostly, I dream of being amazed. How 'bout you? ~ Danielle LaPorte

I have no idea of what it's going to look like when I start a piece. Making art is like having a relationship. You want to bring in some ideas, but if you don't allow it to develop naturally and speak to you as it develops, you end up imposing and projecting upon it. ~ Nick Bantock

A lot of artists give up because it's just too damn hard to go on making art in a culture that by and large does not support its artists. But the people who don't give up are the people who find a way to believe in abundance rather than scarcity.
They've taken into their hearts the idea that there is enough for all of us, that success will manifest itself in different ways for different sorts of artists, that keeping the faith is more important than cashing the check, that being genuinely happy for someone else who got something you hope to get makes you genuinely happier too. ~ Cheryl Strayed

Making art is not the matter of a moment, and nor is making an exhibition; curating follows art. ~ Hans Ulrich Obrist

An artist can't let madness stop him from making art, he simply has to channel it. ~ Christopher Moore

My life is too short to focus on legislation when I could be making art. So I'm not a copyright reformer, I'm a copyright abolitionist. ~ Nina Paley

I think a lot of making art is listening to yourself. ~ Kiki Smith

With Gnaw I was thinking about traditional sculpture, about carving. I was also interested in figurative sculpture. I put those two ideas together and decided that rather than describing the body, I would use the body, my body, as a tool for making art. ~ Janine Antoni

The process of making art is the process of becoming a person with agency, with independent thought, a producer of meaning rather than a consumer of meanings that may be at odds with your soul, your destiny, your humanity, so there's another kind of success in becoming conscious that matters and that is up to you and nobody else and within your reach. ~ Rebecca Solnit

After all, the goal is not making art. It is living a life. Those who live their lives will leave the stuff that is really art. ~ Robert Henri

Nothing prepares you for making art except making art. You have to do it to get better. ~ Philipp Meyer

I think of making love and making art as being very parallel. Even the most amateur attempt can be thrilling. ~ Julia Cameron

I think having a dispassionate eye is a good way of making art. When you don't know the structures of a place, you are unencumbered. ~ Rory Kinnear

What matters in art is not thinking but making. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Making art now means working in the face of uncertainty ; it means living with doubt and contradiction, doing something no one much cares whether you do, and for which there may be neither audience nor reward. Making the work you want to make means setting aside these doubts so that you may see clearly what you have done, and thereby see where to go next. Making the work you want to make means finding nourishment within the work itself. ~ David Bayles

I don't think I'm making any great statements, and I certainly don't think I'm making art. ~ John Hughes

Making art for me is not fun in the sense of la, la, la, la, but it's something that I find very absorbing and very satisfying. ~ Nell Irvin Painter

I think a lot of times our culture has an attitude toward art and the production of art that separates artists from the rest of us, like making art or music or painting or whatever is some magical thing that you have to be inspired to do, and special people do it. ~ Ann Leckie

It's true that there are people who live the idea of being an artist, as opposed to the idea of making art. ~ Daniel Alarcon

A secondhand wardrobe hand clothes doesn't make one an artist. Neither do a hair-trigger temper, melancholic nature, propensity for tears, hating your parents, or HIV. I hate to say it - none of these make one an artist. They can help, but just as being gay doesn't make one witty ... the only thing that makes one an artist is making art. ~ David Rakoff

Making lyrics feel natural, sit on music in such a way that you don't feel the effort of the author, so that they shine and bubble and rise and fall, is very, very hard to do. Whereas you can sit at the piano and just play and feel you're making art. ~ Stephen Sondheim

Making art, being creative, is risky, especially for actors, but everybody on the set is being creative. You're putting yourself out there with ideas, and to have your brain be free of stress so that it can actually do its best work, it feels like you want to have a real sense of intimacy and connection and trust with everybody. ~ Lynn Shelton

Only 10 percent of people who go to art school will still be making art in 10 years. To some extent, you have to want to do it. It's hard. It is something you really have to stick with for it to work. ~ Jeffrey Brown

Emotional labor is the hard work of making art, producing generosity, and exposing creativity. Working without a map involves both vision and the willingness to do something about what you see. Emotional labor is what you get paid to do, and one of the most difficult types of emotional labor is staring into the abyss of choice and picking a path. ~ Seth Godin

People talk about making art films - experimental films. I can make an art film every day of the week. Nothing to it. What's difficult is to combine a commercial film with art. ~ Carlo Ponti

When I began making art, I just thought I liked it. As a woman who was placed in spaces with various conditions, conventions, and restrictions on self-expression, turning to art - whether visual art, writing novels, or writing articles - was to gain freedom from the space around me. ~ Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook

Making art in America is sort of a political statement in and of itself. It's not the best environment for that sometimes. ~ Steve Earle

Such a tough life. This is not the easy way."
"No," Penn agreed, "but I'm not sure easy is what I want for the kids anyway."
She looked up at him. "Why the hell not?"
"I mean, if we could have everything, sure. If we can have it all, yeah. I wish them easy, successful, fun-filled lives, crowned with good friends, attentive lovers, heaps of money, intellectual stimulation, and good views out the window. I wish them eternal beauty, international travel, and smart things to watch on tv. But if I can't have everything, if I only get a few, I'm not sure easy makes my wish list."
"Really?"
"Easy is nice. But its not as good as getting to be who you are or stand up for what you believe in," said Penn. "Easy is nice. But I wonder how often it leads to fulfilling work or partnership or being."
"Easy probably rules out having children," Rosie admitted.
"Having children, helping people, making art, inventing anything, leading the way, tackling the world's problems, overcoming your own. I don't know. Not much of what I value in our lives is easy. But there's not much of it I'd trade for easy either, I don't think. ~ Laurie Frankel

When I was young, there was never any space for me to get attention of my own that wasn't negative. Art, and the practice of making art, was the only space that was mine alone, where I could be anyone and do anything, where just by using my head and my hands I could cry, or laugh, or get pissed off. ~ Kim Gordon

What is the art experience about? Really, I'm not interested in making Art at all. I never, ever, think about it. To say the word Art, it's almost like a curse on art. I do know that I want to try to get closer to myself. The older I get, the more indications I have about what it is to get closer to yourself. You try less hard. I just want to be. ~ Joel Meyerowitz

Those who are waiting for an epiphany to strike may wait forever. The artist simply goes to work, making art, both good and not so good. ~ Chuck Close

Always good to remember when you're making art. You don't have to like it, just be ready to do the next thing. ~ Neil Gaiman